Italian Restaurant Forced By ECG To ‘Leave’ Ghana Due To High Electricity Bills

Post by Stephanie Ekowa

Bread and Wine, an Italian restaurant and bakery which operates in Ghana have released a statement saying they can no longer operate in the country due to the absurdly high electricity rates by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

According to them they have tried to make the ECG reduce the unreasonable amount they are billed monthly as they do not use their appliances to the extent that it accumulates such a sky-rocketed amount.

The Italian Restaurant which is located at Osu in Accra, said it will stop operations at the end of March 2016 because it cannot continue paying the GHC 30,000 being charged by the ECG every month.

The Restaurant’s Electricity Bill

They however informed the public of their closure prior to March.

Dear friends and clients, after receiving couple of electricity ECG bills, 30,000 Ghc/month (7,000 Euros/month), we are sorry to announce that Bread&Wine will close its doors at the end of March 2016,” a portion of the statement read.

The company continued that they have tried to explain to the ECG that their Air Conditioners (ACs) are only used at dinner and lunch time and so did not warrant the huge some of amount as their bill. They said that in response the ECG told them to go back to their country if they would not accept the bills.

According to reports, the statement has however received some attention from the public including top government officials, whom have empathized with the Italian restaurant and have offered to help.

Here’s the full statement posted on Facebook:

Dear friends and clients, after receiving couple of electricity ECG bills, 30,000 Ghc/month (7,000 Euros/month), we are sorry to announce that Bread&Wine will close its doors at the end of March 2016.

We tried to explain to ECG that we are only using our ACs during lunch and diner time, therefore that consumption of electricity is impossible. Their answer was, ‘if you are not happy, go back to your country’.

So it is with a great sadness but a lot of fantastic memories that we took the decision to close down our venue.

We would like to thanks all of you for being part of our adventure and we hope to see you coming before the final closing.”